Mr. Cason’s Commission–Meet the Big Spenders
April 27, 2011 Leave a comment
The first major decision of the Cason Commission was apparently innocuous, but it was a decision to spend $22 million of newly borrowed money for vaguely defined capital projects. This is the local equivalent to doubling down on the current national debt crisis.
This is your household’s equivalent of getting a bigger mortgage to add a room or two to your house in middle of a financial crisis.
This decision doesn’t stand up under the most elementary financial and economic analysis. The Cason Commission, with the exception of Mr. Cabrera, has shown itself incapable of asking even the most basic questions about this “surprise package.”
Aren’t you supposed to make these kinds of decisions by first looking at the city’s budget?
No public discussion, no community involvement in the project list, no serious questions from the commission about the economic, social and financial feasibility of the investments. The Cason Commission took the city manager’s word that we have a $6.5 milliion reserve: are we sure this is enough, what is our income, what is out total spending.
Has the Biltmore problem been solved? Have the pension problems been ameliorated? Has the organizational inefficiency of the city been improved? Have taxes been reduced from last year? Where are the questions?
Why hasn’t the Cason Commission begun to resolve or just talk about our really important financial and institutional problems before running out and spending $22 million.
About Stephen E. McGaughey
Coral Gables Watch 